Substantial Apollo spacecraft panel assembly, measuring 95″ x 36″ x 14″, with included redundant fuel and oxidizer tankage, propellant tubing, valves and electrical interfaces for the Command and Service Module Reaction Control System (RCS). Four such independent assemblies, each of which when fully complete was composed of a four-engine cluster (a quad), a propellant distribution system, propellant storage tanks, and a helium pressurization system, were installed on the Service Module (SM). This RCS panel is perhaps the largest single Apollo spacecraft subassembly ever offered by RR Auction. On the exterior side of the panel are mounting locations for the RCS Quad "Dog House" which hosted four Marquardt R-4D 100 pound thrust engines (missing in this example) as well as access ports that allowed ground crew to fuel the subsystem and conduct ground checks prior to launch.
The four included Bell Aerospace titanium positive expulsion tanks on this artifact provided storage for hypergolic propellants: monomethylhydrazine, or 'MMH,' (fuel) and nitrogen tetroxide, or 'NTO,' (oxidizer). A separate helium tank (missing) stored pressurization gas to feed the propellants at the required rate to the small 100 pound thrust RCS engines. Propellant feed lines (installed but cut by North American Rockwell during the panels decommissioning) routed the fuel and oxidizer to the RCS Quad.
Accompanying documentation identifies the panel assembly as a spare initially for SM 111 (Apollo Soyuz Test Project) and subsequently after rework for alignment to SM 115A, a spacecraft intended for a later Apollo mission subsequently canceled. The partially complete 115/115A CSM is currently on display at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas.
This piece will be crated and shipped from Arizona; the buyer is responsible for all associated costs.
